Guest column: Tim Rumney – £1K fees to employ EU workers will hit hospitality hard

Tim Rumney is vice chair of the Lake District Hotels Association, which is made up of 34 hotels and 20 attractions throughout Cumbria.

Here he gives his take on the news that the government is considering plans to enforce a £1,000 a year fee for every European worker employed in the UK.
 
ENFORCING this fee will be nothing short of devastating for the hospitality industry, an industry that contributes around £143bn to the UK economy and provides employment for an estimated 4.6 million people.

Several of our member hotels employ European workers, many of whom have worked their way up through the ranks to management positions and built careers for themselves here and are now fearing for the future of their jobs.

We are already struggling to fill positions from food and beverage service right up to heads of department because of an absence of good applicants.

This policy would pull the rug out from under our ability to employ quality staff from overseas and add even more cost and red tape into our industry.

We are already witnessing fears among our member hotels, which are losing members of staff because of Brexit concerns. This can only worsen if further financial strain is put on hoteliers employing EU workers.

Over the past year, our industry seems to have been disproportionately affected by Government legislation. Add to this the inevitable job losses that will come as a result of this fee and it puts hoteliers in an extremely difficult position.

What we now need to see is some form of clarity and reassurance on how Brexit will affect European workers in the UK.

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